My wife and I were talking about things we don’t do that were a part of our lives growing up in Youngstown. Here were ten things we came up with on this stroll down memory lane.
Buy bike licenses. We remember buying licenses for our bikes. You’d go down to the nearest fire station, fill out a form with your name, address and bike description and serial number, It was supposed to help in recovering stolen bikes. The old ones were metal and there were holes on bike fenders that you could use a nut and bolt to attach the license. Eventually they went to reflective stickers like the one pictured above that were harder to remove. No one I know ever recovered a lost bike. Better to buy a good lock.
Skate on sidewalks with roller skates that clipped to your shoes. This allowed for a quick switch without pulling off shoes and pulling on skates and the metal wheels held up to concrete sidewalks. Looking online, it does appear there are some modern versions of clip on roller skates.
Buy the latest hits on 45 rpm “singles.” Remember getting the latest Beatles or Human Beinz single. There was a “B” side with a song not nearly as good, usually. The top hits lists came from sales of these. You had to play them with an adapter or insert. Now you download or stream the songs digitally. But vinyl has experienced a comeback. Will 45’s?
Use an old cigar box for your school pencil case. We loaded pencils, erasers, pens, rulers, and protractors into one of these after grandpa emptied one of all his stogies.
Go to sock hops. Yes, we wore socks to protect the gym floor. Girls on one side, boys on the other. Eventually the bolder ones paired up and somehow most of the rest followed while teachers and parents chaperoned.
Climb the rope (or not) in gym class. At least for guys, this was a mark that you were fit. It was a moment of triumph when I could finally do this in eighth grade as baby fat finally got replaced with adolescent muscle. For a long time, it was just a dreaded ordeal of failure.
Using carbon paper. Remember when if you wanted to have a copy of a document, you would insert a piece of carbon paper between two sheets of paper or printed forms, including credit card receipts?
Returning pop bottles for deposits. When we bought a bottle or crate of pop, there was a bottle deposit that was part of the price. We’d get a few cents back when we returned the bottle, which we often used to buy penny candy. Recycling was built into the system.
Shopping at mom and pop stores. They were more expensive but they often would go out of their way to serve their neighborhood customers. They’d set aside a favorite cut of meat. Or deliver a grocery order. “Pop’s” was the store I’d buy baseball cards at or pick up a bag of sugar when mom ran out.
Polishing the chrome on dad’s car. Bumpers. Grills. Trim. Wheels. At one time, cars were loaded with chrome. It would get pitted and you used a special chrome cleaner to make it shine like new.
I suspect you could come up with a lot more. It’s funny all the things that were a part of our lives that we (or our kids) no longer do. One more that readily comes to mind: we dial phone numbers on phones that have electronic keypads but no dials. Hope you have a fun trip down memory lane!
To read other posts in the Growing Up in Working Class Youngstown series, just click “On Youngstown.” Enjoy!
I love the Human Beinz reference. I’d add playing pick up basketball, touch football in the street and baseball at west junior high anytime we could get about 10 kids ( right field is out !)
No parents or supervision needed. We played until we couldn’t see the ball or the rain came. Those guys became lifelong friends no matter where life took them.
I went to Delason Street Elementary, Cleveland Elementary, Princeton Junior High, and South High Schools graduating in 1956. I never saw a rope climb. We played baseball and touch football in the street, Brentwood Avenue, and football in the flats of Mill Creek Park. A man named Archie coached us. I don’t remember ever hearing his last name. The Flats was the large open area below Idora Park where the Princess Bridge is still today. And a lovely bridge it still is.
I remember painting the chromed bumpers to prevent rust from the salted street winters. A practice that did not work well and made a harder job getting the paint off come Spring. Another myth was to use Coca Cola to dissolve the rust.
Thanks for the memories, Bob. Born in the 50’s I remember all theses things. I too grew up on the West Side. “Pop’s” brought up lots of memories for me. It was within walking distance or biking distance from our house on Mayfield. My mother would send me there often, or “Sam’s”,(S&M I think was the proper name I think), or Lazar’s at the other end on Mahoning Ave. I probably saw you on the West Side as a kid, but didn’t know you. Nice to read about the good times we had. Thanks!
cigar boxes,! No one in our family smoked cigars, but I worked part time in a drug store so had access to plenty boxes. I still have a beautiful wooden one filled with bookmarks I have collected over the years.
Letter writing is another art seldom done any more. In the 60-70’s we wrote home from college, from home to our friends in Viet Nam , and sweetheart notes to our lovers. The fun was getting beautiful stationary and sealing it with melted wax! I still have some of those letters to cherish.
I roller skates all over the East Side on those clamp-on skates, with the skate key on a string around my neck, and Band-Aids on both knees.
One of my oldest 45s is that song by Bobby “Boris” Pickett. Still have that but by the time we came of age, it was about buying and sharing albums via reel-to-reel machines. Using a rotary phone may be tough for today’s kids as would driving with a car equipped with non-powered steering, brakes and a standard tranny. Another thing that you really don’t see kids doing much is playing on their own….like a “pickup” baseball game. Seems that something has been lost in them playing on their own.
I had to look up who the Human Beinz were – I was too young then (not even born in 1964) – but see they were from Youngstown! Nice list, though I also have never used clip-on roller skates and never would: they seem way too dangerous!
The clip-on skates in our day were adjustable. The front clasps could be tightened. Still, they fell off all the time.
Bob, Had a bike stolen from just outside our kitchen door. Had a unique reflector on my rear chrome fender, and saw that bike a few days later being used by the paperboy; it was painted purple covering the original green color. Contacted the YPD and a supervisor came to my house and we proceeded to the thief’s residence on Rigby Street on the city’s east side. We went inside and there were 22 other bikes in the basement! We compared my serial no. on file to the purple bike and it was a match. The supervisor called for a YPD vehicle to come out and remove the bikes from the residence. He loaded my bike and a couple of others into the station wagon he drove to the residence. Several years later I was working at YS&T in the Open Hearth department and crossed paths with the thief but he didn’t recognize me with the hardhat and safety glasses. A decade or so later I learned that he was shot and killed in a family dispute.
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I guess some bikes were recovered. First time I ever heard of it!
The Human Beinz ! “Nobody But Me”.
Returning a buggy full of Pepsi/Coke/7 Up bottles was a windfall !
Isaly’s and Lawsons weren’t exactly mom/pop stores but we all shopped there.
I used to buy penny candy at Taste-n-Tell Bakery in the Wedgewood Plaza. What a case they had. We had no idea how much patience those ladies had.
Excellent ! Thanks for the memories.
Thank you!
You blend the memory of the greatness of Youngstown Past, with the reality of Youngstown Present and the hope of Youngstown Future..
That mixture makes up our Home. Thanks for your keen analysis.
Push button light switches.